# Filmmakers who have threatened suicide while trying to get their films made **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 28, 2002, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filmmakers-who-have-threatened-suicide-while-trying-to-get-their-films-made/129966 "2002-09-28T01:49:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![darkhavoc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f6c823/32.png) [@darkhavoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/darkhavoc)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2002, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filmmakers-who-have-threatened-suicide-while-trying-to-get-their-films-made/129966/1 "2002-09-28T01:49:40Z")
Can you name as many Filmmakers as you can who have threatened suicide while trying to get their films made? Eg. Terry Zwigoff on the set of “CRUMB” Francis Ford Coppola on the set of “APOCALYPSE NOW” ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2002, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filmmakers-who-have-threatened-suicide-while-trying-to-get-their-films-made/129966/2 "2002-09-28T01:53:12Z")
I heard a story about Werner Herzon when he was making _Fitzarldo_. The filming was gruelling and Klaus Kinski threatened to walk off of the project. Supposedly Herzog said something like, “I have a pistol. It has two bullets in it. If you try to quit, I will kill you. Then I’ll kill myself.” Did it happen? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ccd318/32.png) [@John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Kentzel-Griffin)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2002, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filmmakers-who-have-threatened-suicide-while-trying-to-get-their-films-made/129966/3 "2002-09-28T03:50:45Z")
Off to Cafe Society. **DrMatrix** - General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![Bob\_Scene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Bob\_Scene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob_Scene)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2002, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filmmakers-who-have-threatened-suicide-while-trying-to-get-their-films-made/129966/4 "2002-09-28T05:29:26Z")
When I first saw this thread title, the first thing I thought was HERZOG! It’s true (according to an interview with Werner Herzog that I heard on NPR) that Kinski tried to leave the set of one of Herzog’s movies, which was out in the middle of a jungle somewhere, and that Herzog forced him at gunpoint to stay and finish the filming, but I think it was _Aguirre, The Wrath Of God._ In any case, Klaus Kinski was justified in wanting to leave, because Herzog is a fucking lunatic, and Herzog was justified in forcing him at gunpoint to finish it because they were extremely close to the end of filming after several months in the middle of nowhere. (I think _Aguirre_ is a great movie, and if I had spent several months trying to film it out in the jungle I would probably resort to armed force to finish it, too.) Herzog and Kinski are both total nutcases (you can’t listen to NPR’s interview with Herzog without having serious concerns about his mental health) and, much like _Apocalypse Now,_ it’s a miracle that they could have made any kind of a movie at all, let alone a great one like _Aguirre_ or _Fitzcarraldo._ ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2002, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filmmakers-who-have-threatened-suicide-while-trying-to-get-their-films-made/129966/5 "2002-09-28T14:21:41Z")
Ah. _Aguirre_. I knew there was a jungle involved. ---
**Author:** ![Bob\_Scene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Bob\_Scene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob_Scene)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2002, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filmmakers-who-have-threatened-suicide-while-trying-to-get-their-films-made/129966/6 "2002-09-28T22:47:59Z")
Here’s the IMDB trivia page for _Aguirre,_ which gives some more details about the incident. [http://us.imdb.com/Trivia?0068182](http://us.imdb.com/Trivia?0068182) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2002, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filmmakers-who-have-threatened-suicide-while-trying-to-get-their-films-made/129966/7 "2002-09-29T01:12:25Z")
Which raises the slightly off-tangent question, which was the most arduous shoot – Fitzcarraldo, Aguirre, or Apocalypse Now? [Coppola: “ **Apocalypse Now** wasn’t _about_ Vietnam; it _was_ Vietnam.”] ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2002, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filmmakers-who-have-threatened-suicide-while-trying-to-get-their-films-made/129966/8 "2002-09-29T03:38:11Z")
Kurosawa (sp) actually tried to off himself. I don’t know if he was making a picture at the time or not. ---
**Author:** ![Forbin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5e9695/32.png) [@Forbin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Forbin)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2002, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filmmakers-who-have-threatened-suicide-while-trying-to-get-their-films-made/129966/9 "2002-09-29T06:43:47Z")
I’ve met Herzog on two occasions. He seemed alright to me. Maybe I was blind to his (alleged) madness because I enjoy his films. \